'In my mind, I compose everything, almost to the brush stroke'

Ford Smart works on one of his paintings at his home. He has been painting as a hobby ever since he can remember.

NICK TOMECEK\ Daily News

By WENDY VICTORA \ Daily News

Published: Monday, October 8, 2012 at 01:57 PM.

OKALOOSA ISLAND — For as long as Ford Smart can remember, he has been painting. The 83-year-old retired fighter pilot chuckles as he recalls his first piece of artwork: two little stones with tufts of grass and a rabbit.

He greets visitors in paint-stained scrubs, cut off to Capri length, and bejeweled glasses. He is in the middle of adding details to the portrait of a former girlfriend.

The walls of his Okaloosa Island home are hung with art from every period of his life in mediums ranging from watercolor and acrylic to oil. A portrait of his mother even includes some of her ashes.

“I painted her portrait in her own DNA, so to speak,” he said, adding that he’s had a number of requests from folks wanting the same type of portrait.

But Smart doesn’t sell his paintings, display them publicly or create art on commission. He paints to express himself — to explore an idea or put a period of his life on paper.

“In my mind, I compose everything, almost to the brush stroke,” he says.

“I have a theory that we all have creative parts. It’s just a matter of developing them.”

In a painting dating back to the 1960s, two sets of hands — one white and one black — clench a lever. They are both heavily veined and muscled from the exertion of trying to move the lever.

“You can’t tell whether they’re working together,” he said of the cryptic message of the painting.

Another, titled “One Day at a Time,” features the sun rising and setting at opposite ends of the panoramic painting.

Despite his octogenarian status, Smart travels extensively, lives independently and socializes widely. His interests and his background are varied.

He has traveled to 39 countries, been in the Army and the Air Force and worked for the CIA.

He flew 100 missions over Vietnam in an F-105 in 1967 and 1968. On one mission, his plane came back with 57 bullet holes. He made it back to the base and crash-landed there, he said.

He has degrees in geology, zoology and psychology.

He collects hats and sculptures of hands. His serious artwork is interspersed with gag art, like a talking mounted deer head.

His back yard has been transformed into a gazebo surrounded by water cascading over layers of rock. The water sculpture replaced a 40-foot lighthouse, where he used to sit and look out onto the Gulf of Mexico.

“I just lucked out,” he says. “My whole life has been like that. I lucked out.”

OKALOOSA ISLAND — For as long as Ford Smart can remember, he has been painting. The 83-year-old retired fighter pilot chuckles as he recalls his first piece of artwork: two little stones with tufts of grass and a rabbit.

He greets visitors in paint-stained scrubs, cut off to Capri length, and bejeweled glasses. He is in the middle of adding details to the portrait of a former girlfriend.

The walls of his Okaloosa Island home are hung with art from every period of his life in mediums ranging from watercolor and acrylic to oil. A portrait of his mother even includes some of her ashes.

“I painted her portrait in her own DNA, so to speak,” he said, adding that he’s had a number of requests from folks wanting the same type of portrait.

But Smart doesn’t sell his paintings, display them publicly or create art on commission. He paints to express himself — to explore an idea or put a period of his life on paper.

“In my mind, I compose everything, almost to the brush stroke,” he says.

“I have a theory that we all have creative parts. It’s just a matter of developing them.”

In a painting dating back to the 1960s, two sets of hands — one white and one black — clench a lever. They are both heavily veined and muscled from the exertion of trying to move the lever.

“You can’t tell whether they’re working together,” he said of the cryptic message of the painting.

Another, titled “One Day at a Time,” features the sun rising and setting at opposite ends of the panoramic painting.

Despite his octogenarian status, Smart travels extensively, lives independently and socializes widely. His interests and his background are varied.

He has traveled to 39 countries, been in the Army and the Air Force and worked for the CIA.

He flew 100 missions over Vietnam in an F-105 in 1967 and 1968. On one mission, his plane came back with 57 bullet holes. He made it back to the base and crash-landed there, he said.

He has degrees in geology, zoology and psychology.

He collects hats and sculptures of hands. His serious artwork is interspersed with gag art, like a talking mounted deer head.

His back yard has been transformed into a gazebo surrounded by water cascading over layers of rock. The water sculpture replaced a 40-foot lighthouse, where he used to sit and look out onto the Gulf of Mexico.

“I just lucked out,” he says. “My whole life has been like that. I lucked out.”

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